CACAO TALK - PART IV

On the last post, we got cocoa liquor, cocoa pasta or cocoa mass.
From cocoa mass we process further to the cocoa powder.

Cocoa mass or cacao liquor

First process is Pressing
The cocoa mass  are pressed on pressing machine.
We get liquid substance and solid substance.
The liquid substance is well known as cocoa butter or cocoa fat.
And the solid substance is well known as cocoa cake, cocoa press-cake or cocoa solids.

Pressing machine

Cocoa butter is a pale-yellow, edible vegetable fat. 
It is used to make chocolate, cosmetics (lipstick), ointment, soap, lotion, and pharmacheutical.
Cocoa flavor and aroma came from this butter.
Cocoa butter is a major ingredient in many types of chocolates (white, dark and milk chocolate).
Cocoa butter is one of the most stable fats known, that containing natural antioxidants.

Cocoa butter

Cocoa press cake is the raw material of many kind of foods, such as ice cream, cake, drink, biscuits, choco-cream and many more. 

Cocoa press cake

Second process is crushing.
The press cake is crushed on the machine until it look like a small grains.
Third process is pulverizing.
The small grains that already crushed will smoothed or pulverized in pulverizing machine until we get cocoa powder.

Pulverizing

Fourth process is sieving.
In traditional method, we use sieve, but in big factories they use sieving machine.
The cocoa powder is sieved to get a smooth powder.

drying rack

Fifth process is drying.
The smooth powder will dried or aerated until it's water content under 1.5 percent.
Now... we are getting cocoa powder. 

Ready to be packed

The last process is packing.

For wholesaler we use big aluminum foil bag or paper sack.

For the retailer we use plastic bag or little aluminum bag.

Pre-packing

Next we will make  chocolate bar.

I hope you enjoy this cacao talk.